The sale of the building at 411 14th Ave. SE in Minneapolis caught everyone in the Dinkytown neighborhood by surprise – including the owner of Espresso Royale, the building’s popular coffee shop and a longtime tenant.

A key Minneapolis riverfront site, home to the long-shuttered Fuji Ya restaurant, has been idle for more than two decades. But now conceptual planning is under way to remake the site into Water Works, which could be a destination public space along the central riverfront in Minneapolis.

The Valley Tap House will open next month in the Fischer Marketplace retail center in Apple Valley. The new restaurant has the same concept as the Lyndale Tap House in the Lyn-Lake area of south Minneapolis, which opened in fall 2009.